Ha ha, thanks mate for the comments. Not on NAXJA much any more since starting this project, so nice to see you here. Time will tell if I can pull this off though as wanted a new challenge to keep the old brain cells stirring.

Still pottering away at it. Got one rail cleaned up on the outside with all the holes I wanted welded up. Flanges made square and filled any nicks and damage with weld from old brackets etc. The web corrected of any dips and rises with a heavy ball peen hammer and dolly, deep grind marks filled with weld and ground and sanded smooth. Still got to finish the other one yet as only done the flanges so far, so might take a few shots of before and after.

Finished filling all the holes!
I'll finish sanding the rails with finer grade paper later as they will get marked up anyway. Have them coated with sheep grease or lanolin to stop them from rusting until they get painted. Just spray on and wipe off so it is not sticky.

Loving the work. I wish you would keep a stock or slightly lower height to the porject when its done but of course, thats for you to decide.

That is my intention. That is why I went to all the trouble of kicking the chassis up at each end so it matches what the Grand uniframe did. The easy way would have been to just shove the coils etc under the Stock Willys frame, but would have meant it was already 4" higher than stock.

Had some minor surgery today so wife told me to take it easy this afternoon. That might have been a mistake as went out to get some tools!
So I spent time this afternoon with Peter Tommasini who hosts my favourite TV segment each week on metal shaping. He showed me around the workshop where they film the show and also in what situations I could use the hammers I just bought could be used. He has a very nice range of his own hand forged tools and wish I could have bought more of them! Was very nice of him to spend over an hour with me as love talking to an old master of metal as we share the same passion. http://www.handbuilt.net.au/handtools.shtml

BTW, the map is every where I have pulled my offroad camper trailer around Australia. For scale, Australia is in area about the same size as the lower 48 states of the US.

Wasn't going to post this as not much of an update, but might as well show which way I went about it and why. In the end I decided to take the time to remove all the rust from the inside of the rails rather than just use a rust converter. This way I could use the weld through primer coating that wont burn off like any other coating I could think of using. I had already removed all the rust from the under and around the fish plates, so why they are left.

The rust converter I had said not to use a heavy zinc coating over it which is what most weld through coating are. Not sure if the copper based ones would have worked? Just be aware that not all weld through coatings are primers as well. Only the primer ones can be painted over later if needed, so read the instructions. Wont matter in this instance as will be fully boxed.

I wanted a better way of hanging the leads and gun off the mig when not in use. So I cut a used wire spool in half and bolted one each side. No more leads getting caught up in the wheels when pushing it around.